Jehoiada's Reforms

¹⁶ And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king that they should be the Lord's people.

^38 [a] “Because of all this ^(A)we make a firm covenant in writing; on ^(B)the sealed document are the names of^[b] our princes, our Levites, and our priests.

¹⁰ Now ^(A)it is in my heart ^(B)to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us.

¹⁷ And Jehoiada ^(A)made a covenant between the Lord and the king and people, that they should be the Lord's people, and also ^(B)between the king and the people.

²⁹ join with their brothers, their nobles, ^(A)and enter into a curse and an oath ^(B)to walk in God's Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes. ^30 (C)We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons. ^31 (D)And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. And we will forego the crops of the ^(E)seventh year and the ^(F)exaction of every debt.

³² “We also take on ourselves the obligation to give yearly ^(G)a third part of a shekel^[a] for the service of the house of our God: ^33 (H)for the showbread, ^(I)the regular grain offering, ^(J)the regular burnt offering, the Sabbaths, the new moons, the appointed feasts, the holy things, and the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. ^34 (K)We, the priests, the Levites, and the people, have likewise cast lots ^(L)for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, according to our fathers' houses, at times appointed, year by year, to burn on the altar of the Lord our God, ^(M)as it is written in the Law. ³⁵ We obligate ourselves ^(N)to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord; ³⁶ also to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, ^(O)as it is written in the Law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks; ^37 (P)and to bring the first of our dough, and our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the wine and the oil, to the priests, ^(Q)to the chambers of the house of our God; and to bring to the Levites the tithes from our ground, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all our towns where we labor. ³⁸ And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive the tithes. And the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of ^(R)the storehouse. ³⁹ For the people of Israel and the sons of Levi ^(S)shall bring the contribution of grain, wine, and oil to the chambers, where the vessels of the sanctuary are, as well as the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. ^(T)We will not neglect the house of our God.”

¹² Then they said, “We will restore these and ^(A)require nothing from them. We will do as you say.” And I called the priests and ^(B)made them swear ^(C)to do as they had promised. ^13 (D)I also shook out the fold^[a] of my garment and said, “So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied.” ^(E)And all the assembly said “Amen” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.

³ Therefore ^(A)let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and ^(B)their children, according to the counsel of my lord^[a] and of ^(C)those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done ^(D)according to the Law.

³¹ And the king ^(A)stood in his place ^(B)and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. ³² Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin join in it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.